Modi's Assistance For Pregnant Women More Modest Than Many Existing Schemes

The first such scheme was announced in 1995.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of a ₹ 6,000 cash benefit to pregnant women sounds promising, but might actually be a more modest effort than existing government schemes.

India's first nationwide scheme to provide cash assistance to pregnant women was the National Maternity Benefits Scheme (1995) which paid ₹ 500 to poor women (with Below Poverty Line cards) before their deliveries, to meet the cost of the delivery.

Since 2005, the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) pays ₹ 1,400 to poor women who deliver in a hospital, for the first two deliveries. National schemes for handloom weavers and handicraft artisans provide maternity benefits of ₹ 2,500 for the first two deliveries. The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana has, since 2005, covered hospitalisation up to ₹ 30,000 for BPL households.

More recently, the National Food Security Act (2013) mandated the payment of no less than ₹ 6,000 to all pregnant women, irrespective of their income status, but has not yet been made operational.

The Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana being run on a pilot basis since 2010 in 53 districts provides ₹ 6,000 to pregnant women conditional on them meeting some requirements including vaccinations and counselling, and is also income-neutral. The JSY payment for a safe delivery is in addition to these two proposed schemes.

In addition, several states run schemes which offer benefits in addition to central benefits, research by Vanita Leah Falcao, Dipa Sinha and other published in the Economic and Policital Weekly in 2015 shows.